By TwoCircles.net news desk
Jammu: A state-level Gojri Poetry Festival was held here at K.L Saigal Hall in Jammu today under the joint auspices of Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages and North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala.
Welcoming the guests Dr. Javaid Rahi, head of Gojri wing of the Academy and Editor-cum-Cultural Officer, said: “This year the Academy is going to publish twenty new books in Gojri and the prestigious Concise Gojri Dictionary will come to market next month. He informed that the Academy has launched a project of translating 50 world classics into Gojri from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and English. The translation project will be completed by 2012.
Held in connection with four day long Jashn-e-Shairi, the programme was presided over by prominent Gojri writer Ch. G R Bhadana while as Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, secretary of the Academy, was in presidium.
Zaffar Iqbal Manhas in his address said: “Academy had played a major role in preservation of this tribal language and in future we are working on number of projects in Gojri including Gojri Encyclopedia Project.”
Ch.Ghulam Rasool Badhana in his presidential address said that being one of the oldest and significant languages of the state Gojri deserves healthier dealing from government side. He said that Gojri should be included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. He impressed upon the Gojri writers to work firmly in this direction.
Those who recited their poems included Amin Banhali, Anwar Chowdhary, Anwar Hussain, GR Asghar, Rehmat-ullah, Shamima Akther, Hussan Parwaz, Jahanger Asghar, Mushtaq Husaain and Barkat Bagri.